Unseen
by Passion's Spirit
Summary: Follow a blind ninja as she sets off on an adventure to find her place in the world... and steps unknowingly into the path of Akatsuki!
1. Prologue

This is my second fanfic, only this time, I hope to write more than just a one-shot. I sorta got the idea after watching Blind Fury... I could've used Itachi, but I needed someone to mold and work with, so yeah. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of these characters except Ryoko.

* * *

"Tsunade-sama!" Kurenai panted out as she burst through the Hokage's doors that lead to her ever messy office.

Tsunade looked up from the files on her desk and observed Kurenai before her face grew hard with seriousness. Kurenai was always a calm kunoichi, so whatever news she had now to make her lose her cool must be important if not more. "What is it?" Tsunade asked, giving Kurenai her full attention.

"Ryoko," Kurenai started with a breathless voice. "She- she's gone. I looked everywhere, but she didn't seem to leave a trail behind or a hint to her destination." Kurenai stepped away from the doors, letting them close on their own, and came to a stop before the Hokage. The red-eyed kunoichi extended her arm, holding a note in her hand for Tsunade to read. "She left this, though."

Tsunade took the note that was handed to her and read as Kurenai caught her breath.

_Kurenai,_

_You've been good to me, you really have, and I appreciate it. Its just not the same here as it was with my mother… even though she's not the same herself anymore. Yes, I'm leaving, but that's not the only reason. I have more._

_My dream to be a full fledged ninja would never be fulfilled here in Konoha, not when people don't give the chance to try because of my eye sight. Don't you see that I can't have a life as a simple civilian? I love going on missions, having adventures, even with the loss of my vision. I feel out of place. This isn't my home, Kurenai._

_Please don't come after me. Don't gather a search party for me. This is my choice and I want you to respect that. If this means becoming a missing nin, then I don't care. Thank you for everything._

_-Ryoko_

Tsunade re-read the letter again, examining the writing. Ryoko's hand writing was off and crooked, but she managed to make out the words just fine. She sighed as she put down the note and looked back at Kurenai who seemed to calm down after a few moments.

"If these are Ryoko's wishes, then so be it," Tsunade said, almost to herself.

Kurenai's eyes widened. "What do you mean?! She's a blind kid, Tsunade-sama! Are you going to let her go off on her own?!" Her eyes narrowed at Tsunade and her frame shook with anger.

"She's not a child anymore, Kurenai! She's seventeen. She's been trained as a ninja before she became completely blind," Tsunade let out a wary breath before continuing. "I knew it was only a matter of time before she left."

"What do you mean?" Kurenai asked, her eyes stilled narrowed and her fists clenched.

Tsunade sat back in her chair as she replied, "If you looked at the way she's lived her life in this village, you could see that she was missing something. Such a sweet girl with such a sad smile… she was out of place here."

Kurenai let her hands hang desperately at her sides and looked down, strands of her black hair falling in her ever beautiful face. "I know," she murmured softly. "Its just… I tried so hard to make her feel loved after her mother became depressed and incapable of caring for her."

Tsunade nodded in understanding before Kurenai turned to leave. She sighed loudly as she sat back in her chair thought of her lost student.

Ryoko had only been a four year old child when her father died. The tragic event had impacted her mother more than it had impacted her and left the woman depressed and incapable of caring for herself, much less Ryoko. It was already tough for their family to get money when her father was alive, imagine how it would be with him gone.

After that, Ryoko's mother contacted the only relative they had: Kurenai. They weren't very close relatives, something like distant cousins. Even so, Ryoko had inherited Kurenai's family's natural ability to do genjutsu and she looked strikingly like Kurenai, only her hair was a deep red. That was really the only proof that connected Ryoko to Kurenai. With that, Kurenai took pity on Ryoko and took her in, caring for her like a big sister.

Ryoko grew up in Konoha and trained as a ninja in hopes of becoming as great as Kurenai and her friend, Kakashi. She didn't have many friends in the academy, instead preferring to be alone to think, train, and study. She wasn't the best student, but she wasn't the worst either. She specialized in genjutsu and performed it easily with her balanced chakra, but she much rather preferred taijutsu, claiming that it was 'much more satisfying to feel the crunch of bones breaking beneath bloody flesh' as she pounded an opponent.

Ryoko managed to graduate from the academy with no problem at all. It was until she received her own headband that she received bad news from her doctor. Ryoko's vision was fading and it would continue to fade until she was blind. Slowly, at age 14 it begun to fade quicker. Ryoko had always wore glasses as a child, but after receiving this news, she threw them to the ground and stepped on them roughly. Why her? There was, of course, one way to save her vision which was surgery, but it couldn't be performed on her at such a young age. Because her eyes were still developing like the rest of her body, surgery would only repair her eyesight temporarily, meaning that she would blind afterward anyway. Other than waiting until she became 18, the operation was costly, and it would be hard for her and Kurenai to pay for it.

Instead of becoming depressed like most people would have, Ryoko trained harder to become the ninja she's always wanted to be. Kurenai would sometimes watch as Ryoko tied her headband over her red eyes and trained in darkness. Needless to say, she became good. The rest of her senses grew sharper, allowing her to feel, scent, and sense the world in a different way. She was sure she could still be a ninja.

Ryoko's hope was stepped on like an ant at age 15 when the Hokage no longer allowed her to go on missions. To make up for it, however, Tsunade promised to train Ryoko herself to occupy her so that she wouldn't be depressed. Still angry, Ryoko accepted and grew strong, learning many jutsus, both medical and elemental before she became completely blind at age 17.

_Yes, she'll be fine,_ Tsunade reassured herself. _After all, I don't train no fools._

* * *

A distance away from Konoha, Ryoko sat in the shade of large oak tree. The red-head laid her short beautifully carved wooden staff against her shoulder before reaching for her backpack and taking out a plump pouch. She shook it and smiled slightly when she heard the familiar jingling of coins and crumple of paper money. She stuffed it back into her backpack and felt around for the familiar plastic feel of saran wrap.

"Ah, here it is!" Ryoko said to no one in particular as she pulled out a sandwich wrapped in plastic. She ate in silence, alert of any other noise besides her munching and the distant chirping of birds in the morning.

She swept her tongue over her teeth as she stuffed the half-eaten sandwich back in her dark grey backpack. Who knows when she'd be able to get some more food. Or water. Or money. _Great,_ Ryoko thought. _Now I'm worrying myself! I'm not turning back!_

She stood up with her staff in hand, shaking her thoughts away. Her light skinned hand grasped the top of her staff like a handle and pulled with force to produce a very sharp sword that glinted in the sunlight. She felt the cool metal with a finger to reassure herself before sheathing it again.

After slinging her backpack on and making sure her ninja gear as well as her whip was placed safely on her hips, she slid her hiate back over her lifeless-looking red eyes and set off in a random direction (and she made sure it wasn't the direction she'd come from!) with her 'short staff' in hand as a guide.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Please take the time to review or at least let me know that you want me to write more! Itachi and Kisame will be in the next chapter, so expect them soon.


	2. Chapter 1

I'll be going to live on campus this fall so I'll be busy the next couple weeks, but I'll try to update as soon as possible, because I might not be able to do so frequently once I'm there. Anyway, here it is!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of these characters except Ryoko.

* * *

Itachi and Kisame didn't bother to reverse their more than obvious Akatsuki cloaks as they entered a rather busy and about village somewhere in the grass country. The bells hanging from their straw hats jingled slightly with the breeze as the sunlight beat down on them, giving them something to be thankful for on this hot summer day.

Kisame followed Itachi closely as his partner weaved through the villagers and looked about for a nice place to take a break from traveling.

"There's a teahouse," Kisame pointed out as he removed his hat, enabling the breeze to blow through his navy hair.

Itachi made no reply as he made his way to the rather nice looking teahouse. A strong smell of tea herbs washed over the duo as they stepped inside the small dim building. They stood there at the entrance, allowing their eyes to adjust to the dim light as a few people looked away from their teacups to observe the shinobi.

As soon as Kisame was able to make out a bar-like counter, he took a seat near the entrance and gestured for Itachi to take the empty seat beside him. As Itachi complied and discarded his hat, Kisame looked to his left and examined the red-haired person who sat a seat away from him. This seemed to be the first person who didn't stare or look at him strangely since they had arrived. Then he realized why.

She was blind.

* * *

Ryoko sensed not only two presences, but two _powerful_ presences as a flow of power reached her. Her red eyes narrowed suspiciously as she noticed that both newcomers had cloaked their chakra. _Hmph. Or tried to._ She smirked and sipped her tea quietly, not bothering to turn to the newcomers, considering she couldn't see anyway. Her body stiffened slightly as she felt the newcomers take their seats right next to hers with only one round stool separating them.

"More tea?"

"Huh?" Ryoko shifted her attention to the elderly woman in front of her and smiled as soon as she processed what the woman had said. "Yes please," she said rather innocently.

The woman filled Ryoko's teacup expertly before moving on to serve the two newcomers that had aroused a feeling of suspicion in the red-head.

Ryoko fixed her sightless red eyes in front of her as she observed the newcomers with what she liked to call her sixth sense. Or rather, her fifth, since she had lost her sight. As soon as she lost her vision almost a year ago she had sharpened her ability to sense chakra. Usually, any shinobi could sense chakra, but what made Ryoko's ability different was that she could not only feel peoples' chakra more clearly and at a distance, but she could also feel what they were feeling (though faintly depending on how disguised or strong people's emotions are). It was like a stronger version of empathy for her.

At first, Ryoko had problems with her 'sixth sense'. Sometimes she got overwhelmed by other energies and only felt other people's, usually confusing her. It gave her headaches within the first month of developing this ability. Having no one to talk to, Ryoko learned to control her ability within time all the while learning of other things this ability allowed her to do.

One of the things she discovered was that she was able to somehow manipulate people's energy as a way of getting them to feel or think differently as well as draw out thoughts from their minds. It was much harder if not impossible to do it on someone who had a stronger mind or had more control over their chakra, thoughts, and emotions. Most of these people were usually ninjas. Although her ability grew somewhat stronger and tamer over time, Ryoko chose to not use it for two reasons: she had morals, meaning that she did not have the desire to 'read people's thoughts', as she called it, and using her ability usually gave her headaches. Due to this, Ryoko chose to keep it locked away unless she really needed to use it. Other than headaches, the only other weakness was that if her own emotions were overwhelming, she could not control it.

Using only a tad bit of her ability, Ryoko mentally reached over to the presences beside to and tried to 'absorb' a small fragment of the person's chakra. The keyword here was "tried".

_Man, these guys are made of concrete!_ Ryoko thought to herself. She reeled her ability back in, mentally promising herself not to use it without much reason like that again. Instead, she took a whiff of the air around her and identified both newcomers as males once the manly musky scent hit nostrils. There was something else too… blood. One of them was hurt, the one closest to her, though not by much. Maybe it was best if she got out of this teahouse. These two people weren't ordinary shinobi, much less civilians.

Ryoko dug a hand into the plump leather pouch that was tied around her ninja gear belt and pulled out several coins and set them on the bar counter before her. She preferred to use coins rather than paper money, because she could 'see' the amount of money she held with her hands due to the different sizes and engravements on the coins. One never knows when some jerk will decide to rip off a blind girl.

"Keep the change," Ryoko said to the woman she felt was in front of her as she stood up, ready to leave.

Suddenly, Ryoko jumped, startled, when she felt a hand squeeze her butt. Her red hair whirled with her as she spun around to glare at new stranger behind her. Flushed with anger and embarrassment, she opened her mouth and clenched her fist, ready to give this guy a pounding.

"Taking advantage of a girl, nonetheless blind?" A voice beside her spoke. It was one of the guys she had been observing and he sounded somewhat cocky and challenging. "Now that's just lower than low."

Ryoko felt herself being pushed to the side by the harasser as he took a step forward to look at big blue man. Blue, literally.

"What? You feelin' like a hero today?" The pervert replied with a smirk plastered on his face. "This is none of your business, sharky."

'Sharky' stood up, extending to his full height. The harasser's smirk faltered.

"Kisame," a new emotionless, yet commanding voice spoke. "We are not here to attract attention."

Kisame grinned, bearing his razor sharp teeth as he replied. "I'll try not to make a mess."

Ryoko gripped her wooden short staff in her right hand, alert, when she heard a sickening crunch accompanied by a painful scream that erupted from the pervert's throat.

Kisame had easily forced the guy to his knees as his strong calloused hands held the guy's arms behind him, breaking them. His grin grew as he pushed on the man's back with his foot, earning a few more yelps and cracks.

"Apologize," he said, uncaring of all the attention he had attracted. His dark-haired partner simply sipped his tea calmly, waiting for Kisame to finish.

"S-sorry! Sorry, miss!"

Kisame let the perverted man drop to the floor in pain and watched as he picked himself up and left hurriedly without looking back.

Ryoko swallowed nervously as she felt Kisame's eyes on her.

"You okay, kid?" Kisame was finally able to get a good look at the blind redhead before him. She stood to about 5 feet and 7 inches tall dressed in forest green cargo pants and a black three-quarter sleeve shirt. A matching forest green cloak that linked around her neck with a gold chain completed her outfit. He smirked when he saw that she was clutching her short staff in, what was it? Fear?

Ryoko nearly jumped when Kisame spoke to her, but she managed to control herself. "Y-yeah." She drew in a long breath, forcing herself to relax before bowing her head in gratitude. "Thank you." Normally she would have said something like, 'I can handle myself!', but she still felt a nagging suspicion about this guy that made her shiver.

"Its no problem," Kisame replied, a bit surprised at her reaction. He sat back down making sure that Samehada was still leaning on the bar counter and safe. "Sit," he said when he noticed that she was still a bit shaken.

Ryoko complied when she felt Kisame guide her with an outstretched hand to the empty seat beside him.

"So, what's your name, kid?"

"Ryoko… Hashiki, Ryoko."

"Well, its a pleasure to meet you, Ryoko. I'm Kisame, and this here," he gestured to the raven-haired man with a thumb, forgetting that she could not see. "Is Itachi."

Ryoko sat upright, having nearly forgotten about the other fairly quiet man. "Oh, well, its very nice to meet you two," she replied, smiling slightly when she noticed that Kisame was very polite and friendly. Her smiled faltered slightly, however, when she also noticed that Kisame hadn't told her their last names like she had.

_They're probably in hiding…_ she thought to herself, suspiciously. _But wait a second! Itachi and Kisame? There's not a lot of people running around freely with the name Itachi. Could it be _Uchiha_ Itachi? And how many Itachis have a partner named Kisame?_

Ryoko stopped herself from making any movements or expressions that might give away her newfound suspicions. _They must be Akatsuki!_ She felt her stomach flip once the thought had processed completely. Better to keep this to herself, she continued smiling slightly with her staff in hand.

"What is a blind girl doing here alone? You're not from around here."

This time, it was Itachi who had spoken, and it was more like a statement than a question. While Kisame and Ryoko had conversed, the raven-haired man had come to some suspicions of his own. This girl was dressed for fighting and she was also alone, something no normal blind person would do. Itachi had come to the conclusion that this girl was shinobi a distance away from her village.

Ryoko narrowed her sightless red eyes at the rather blunt statement. "Yeah, so?" she answered crudely. "And don't worry about my being here." She mentally slapped herself, forgetting that this may be the famous Uchiha that had murdered his clan in the past.

Itachi narrowed his eyes back at her as well, but did not reply. It wasn't worth it. She was just a lone blind girl whom he'd never cross paths with again anyway.

Sensing the tension in the air, Kisame decided to disturb the silence. "I don't mean to offend you by saying this, Ryoko, but I don't think its safe for someone like you to be wandering the village alone."

Ryoko reached down into a pocket of her cargo pants with her left hand and brought up her Konoha headband to dangle in front of them. "Look, I'm a ninja, dammit. I've been fine alone for couple months and I will be for the next-! The next… forever!" She hated how people treated her like a helpless child. It just never seemed to stop.

Kisame looked a bit taken aback by her little outburst. _It seems like this one's a bit on the fiery side._ He smirked.

"So you're a missing nin?" Itachi asked as soon as he caught the fact that she had been alone for a couple of months. He smirked slightly when he noticed the red-head's expression go from anger to blank, then anger again. Looks like he's won this round.

Ryoko's shoulders slumped when she realized that she had not only failed to control her emotions, but had also given away the important fact that she was now a missing nin. She tied her headband over her eyes and stood up.

"Hey, hey, where are you going?" Kisame asked, standing up as well with Samehada in hand.

"I'm sorry, but that's really none of your business, Kisame-san," she replied as she used her staff and the slight breeze to guide her to the exit of the teahouse. "But if you must know, I'm leaving the village."

Itachi stood up beside Kisame as the blue skinned man put down some money on the counter before following Ryoko outside.

"Let me take you to the outskirts of the village," he offered as he walked beside the shorter girl with Itachi on his other side.

"Thanks, but no thanks."

"We're headed out of here anyway, so I'm still coming."

Ryoko considered telling them to buzz off, Akatsuki or not, but stopped herself when she realized it would be unwise. If she were to be any ruder then she had already been, they wouldn't pass up the chance to kill her once she was outside the village. If they were Akatsuki, that is. Even if they were, they couldn't be _that_ cold.

Ryoko decided not to take a chance. "Fine, do whatever you want," she told them, not bothering to stop or face them. She banished the bad mood with a small smirk and quickened her pace through the village. "Keep up!… if you can that is."

Upon hearing this, Kisame grinned and glanced at his partner who rose a single brow at Ryoko's sudden mood swing.

"Women," Itachi muttered, earning a low growl from Ryoko.

Kisame simply chuckled.

* * *

"Well, it was nice meeting you, kid," Kisame told Ryoko as they stood at the beginning of two paths. He strapped Samehada safely to his back before turning to Itachi as a sign that he was ready to depart.

Ryoko smiled as she tapped her staff to the ground and leaned on it slightly. "Same here, Kisame-san." A light breeze blew around them, ruffling their hair, with only the sound of the wind and billowing cloaks surrounding them. "You too, Itachi-san."

Itachi merely gave a single nod, not caring if Ryoko could see it or not.

Ryoko lifted her face to her wind and parted her lips slightly, tasting the air. "I'd better get going," she said almost sadly. "Its going to rain." With that, she turned and left on one of the paths the main one had separated into.

Itachi turned the other way and began walking on the other path, leaving Kisame to walk after him and wonder whether Ryoko's prediction of rain would come true. For some reason, he decided that he trusted her forecast.

* * *

Well, that's it! Finally! This took forever to type. I hope it was good enough... and I tried not to make Itachi and Kisame OOC, but I think I failed anyway. Oh well. Oh, and for a sneak peek, I plan on having Sasori and Deidara cross paths with Ryoko. Anyway... please, review!


	3. Chapter 2

I had to sleep on this chapter, because I wasn't sure what would really happen if Deidara and Sasori encountered Ryoko and what reason they had to keep her alive. I still don't have a good reason, but they don't have a reason to kill her either. Anyway, thanks to the couple of people who have reviewed and the others who've added me as a favorite author or such. Here's the third chapter! Please enjoy and don't forget to review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of these characters except Ryoko.

* * *

Ryoko awoke from her nap to the chirping of cicadas and many other species of bugs. How long had she slept? She groaned as she sat up against the base of tree and shook her head in an attempt to make the lingering feeling of sleep disperse. Her right hand groped around for her lovely wooden staff as the other reached for her back pack and ninja gear. Smiling when she found the familiar short staff, she stood up to stretch and practiced beating, stabbing, and slicing the air with the unsheathed sword she had produced from her staff.

After finally having shaken all traces of sleep away, she equipped her stuff, stopping when she couldn't find her cloak. _My cloak!_ She thought, slightly panicked. _Where is it?! Did someone take it?_ _Did they take anything else?!_ Her red hair whipped about the warm summer afternoon air as her hands searched in her pockets for her money. It was still there.

"Ohh… whoops!" Ryoko told herself in a manner that suggested she was slightly embarrassed. "I'm wearing it!" And there it was, her cloak wrapped safely around her. She must've slept with it on to not have noticed it.

Making sure that her whip settled with the rest of her ninja gear, she began walking away from her daytime camp, not bothering to slip her headband over her sightless red eyes like she usually did. Her slightly tanned hand gripped her staff as it guided her across the forest floor, helping her avoid any obstacles in her way. She walked close enough to the river she had been traveling by to hear the water running from a distance, but far enough to have it out of normal human sight.

After a short while of walking she took notice of the summer evening temperature. It would be nightfall soon. Her steady pace did not falter as she turned over some thoughts in her head. _Should I stop soon? Does it matter?_ Usually Ryoko would stop for night and find a hidden area, wary of forest predators that moved about the night, including other ninja that wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of her blindness. Or just her. Of course her acute hearing and scent would alert her of any presence, but it was always better to be safe than sorry.

Ryoko made up her mind to continue walking through the dark forest. Occasionally there were patches of light on the ground where the moonlight managed to filter through the dense trees, but it didn't matter to her anyway. Even in daytime Ryoko still found herself in darkness. Would it matter if she continued her journey by night? She wasn't tired, that's for sure, especially after the unexpectedly long nap she took in the middle of the hot summer day.

Ryoko blinked at nothing, her red eyes staring straight ahead, sightless. She would never forget the day she woke up blind. It had almost been a year ago. After the news was given to her at fourteen, she fought to become one of the best ninja, but even so, she knew she would one day wake up to darkness. At age seventeen, it just happened. Even before she had completely lost her sight, she still struggled with her failing vision. She was no longer able to go on missions or work at the hospital, and training with Tsunade had become tough and difficult. She thought that one day Tsunade would be performing the much needed operation on her, but now that she made her life changing choice, she could not go back. Now, she had to find someone who was medically skilled to do it for her. The operation wasn't very difficult, but it still needed to be performed with caution.

Ryoko suddenly stopped in her tracks, listening for the noises that snapped her out of her thoughts and sniffing the cool night air around her. She stood still, making out voices, two of them, a good distance away. She could also hear the crackling of a well lit fire and strained her ears to hear more.

"I don't see the point in putting up traps if we can just kill whoever it is that crosses our path, yeah."

_Ninja._

Ryoko didn't waste time in turning around and walking away to avoid them, but as soon as she did, she sensed that something was wrong in the area she was standing in. Her thoughts came too late as she tripped over something and landed face down on the forest floor, her staff rolling a couple feet away from her.

_A trap!_ Ryoko stayed frozen on the ground, expecting explosions or several sharp weapons to fly out at her, but they never came. _Chakra strings?_ She sat up sharply as she heard the two people who had been conversing approach her at a fast pace. Once she had scented the location of her wooden staff, she reached for it, ready to fight or flee. The moment her slightly tanned hand grasped it, someone's foot stepped on her staff, preventing her from picking it up.

"Looking for this, yeah?"

Ryoko stood quickly and jumped a few feet back, her back coming into contact with the other person. Her red hair whipped about her as she spun around, facing the other man. Before she could do anything else, she felt a sort of flexible metal cord wrap around her arms and torso, preventing any movement.

The man in front of her looked closely at her as the guy who had spoken picked up her staff and approached them.

"She's blind, brat," the man who had trapped her stated, his voice deep and menacing. Ryoko took a quick whiff, scenting a strange corpse-like scent mixed with wood come off of him.

She focused on scenting the other man that now stood with them, his hands playing with her staff. He smelled of earth, a bit clay-like, accompanied by nice smell of shampoo wafting from his hair.

"Should we let her go then?" the nice-smelling guy asked, spinning her staff lazily with a hand.

"Don't be stupid, brat. She could be a spy."

Ryoko stiffened slightly before struggling against her bonds. _Maybe I can break this cord…_ Even if she could, she'd still have to face fighting them afterwards and she could not risk doing that. Their chakra hinted that they were quite powerful, even when it was cloaked like it was now, so she settled for doing the only thing she could at the moment.

"I'm not a spy!" she exclaimed, letting a hint of frustration into her voice.

The man holding her let out a grunt of disbelief as the other one came a bit closer to her. "Who are you, yeah?" he asked, surprisingly not menacingly as his partner had been speaking.

Ryoko stopped her slight struggles and thought for a moment before answering calmly. "Hashiki, Ryoko."

The man in front of her shifted slightly. What would a blind girl be doing in the forest at night? Alone? "State your business," he demanded, his voice no gentler than when he had first spoken.

_What? Did he own the forest now?_ "I'm simply passing through," Ryoko answered, keeping her anger under control. It wouldn't do her any good to make these people mad at her. Who knows what they could do?

Without answering, the man walked off, still holding her with his metal cord. The other one trailed behind them and continued playing with her staff.

"H-hey!" Ryoko began struggling again after she felt herself being dragged with them in the direction where the fire crackled. She stopped abruptly when she felt other cloaked chakra presences around them. "How many of you are there?" she asked cautiously. Somehow, she doubted they were part of the newcomers.

"How many of us…?" The guy who was playing with her staff stopped. Surely even a blind person could tell there were obviously just two of them? He glanced at his partner, earning a look of slight surprise. That's when he realized they were not the only ones there.

Ryoko landed on the ground with her feet, but stumbled, trying to regain her balance, when the man let her drop as he spoke to his partner. "Deidara, the fire!"

_Deidara, huh?_ Ryoko decided not to waste any more time thinking over the guy's name. She had to find her staff and get out of here while they were distracted. She felt a small wave of surprise come from the Deidara as he hurried to put the fire out. _Didn't he know there were others here, or what?_

But it wasn't that that had surprised Deidara. His partner rarely called him by his own name. As soon as he put out the fire, he stuck his hand into the messenger bag hanging at his hip, ready to turn his enemies into 'art'. He took notice of Ryoko looking around for something when he realized he still held her staff in his other hand. He tossed the short staff at her feet with a simple, "here".

As soon as Ryoko bent down to get her staff, the newcomers had decided to present themselves. She stood up, straight and still, with her hand gripping the top part of her short staff. She felt their chakra, no longer cloaked; surrounding them. There had to be around ten.

Ryoko was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Deidara, who was now about three feet away from her, curse. "Bounty hunters. They never give up, yeah."

"Look at what we've got here, boys," a male voice spoke, a smirk apparent in his voice. "Sasori and Deidara of Akatsuki." A couple people whooped with excitement. "We've got ourselves the bounty of a lifetime."

_Akatsuki?!_ Ryoko didn't bother hiding the surprise on her features when she had caught the man's words. _This is _not _good._ At least she got her captive's name; Sasori.

A new female voice emerged from Ryoko's right. "What's this?" she asked, taking a step closer to Ryoko. Ryoko's heart beat quickened. "Its Hashiki, Ryoko from Konoha, Boss." The woman smiled and dared to take a closer look. "The Hokage's apprentice."

"Make that three missing nin with a bounty worth dying for over their heads, boys," the first voice said, a bad kind of excitement leaking from his words. "Lady Luck's on our side today."

Ryoko didn't miss the wave of surprise that emitted from Deidara and Sasori, though Sasori's was more concealed. Now that they knew who she really was, would they kill her? Maybe, but that wasn't the problem a hand right now. The problem was that she had quite a few enemies around her right now. _Dangerous_ enemies.

Somewhere in the middle of the surrounding bounty hunters, Deidara had finally withdrawn his hand from his messenger bag and smirked. "Let's show them true art, danna, yeah!"

As soon as those words left his mouth, several explosions went off at once around them along with painful screams.

From a short distance away from Ryoko, Sasori whipped out his scorpion-like steel tail and deflected several weapons thrown at him. "You call that art, brat?" His tail extended, whipping the air as it darted around, stabbing anyone that got in his way.

The small clearing was soon filled with sounds of metal hitting metal, explosions, and footsteps on the ground. Ryoko whipped around to scent the woman who had spoken earlier come closer, no doubt to attack. Ryoko wasted no time in gathering chakra in her fist as she aimed and threw her punch at the woman.

Splinters fell around her as she realized she'd hit a tree. _She's fast._ Ryoko felt the woman's chakra appear behind her as she gripped the top her staff and produced the concealed sword. Ryoko turned quickly, launching her sword at the woman as she did so and managed to earn a strangled gurgle coming from the woman's mouth. _Bingo_.

The woman fell to the ground with Ryoko's sword protruding from her chest as a male bounty hunter came at Ryoko. He threw several hard punches at Ryoko, but she dodged them by carefully listening to the wind split as his fists came at her. A kunai flew past her, grazing her cheek, as she dodged one of his hits. She jumped back a good distance away from him, glaring at him, even though she could not see him. He had both tried to stab her and punch at the same time from different directions. _Clever,_ Ryoko thought with a slight smirk.

The ground shook as Ryoko drove his chakra-filled fist at it, making it crumble and split beneath the bounty hunter's feet. The man stumbled, trying to gain his balance, as Ryoko took this chance to lash out her whip from its place on her hip. Ryoko pin-pointed the man's feet with all the stumbling he was doing and whipped at his feet, wrapping the whip tightly around them and making the man fall over with a grunt of surprise. She tugged the whip sharply towards her with enough strength to make the man fly at her as her whip unwrapped itself from around his feet. Ryoko's fist flew right at the man's head as he came flying towards her, crushing his skull and sending him crashing through a tree.

Ryoko spun around, expecting someone else to attack her, but was met with silence, minus the sound of slow dragging footsteps from Sasori and the few claps from Deidara. Apparently he had witnessed the last fraction of her fight. She stayed slightly crouched and tense with her whip tightly in hand. Would she have to fight them too?

Sasori walked around the clearing examining the bodies on the floor as Deidara approached Ryoko. His clapping had stopped.

"Well, it looks like those bounty hunters were right after all, yeah," he said, referring to the revelation of her identity. He came to a stop a good distance from her when he noticed she was still tense and wary. "Calm down, the fight's over."

"Tch. These people aren't worth turning into puppets," Sasori's dark muttering reached them from his location in the clearing. He turned and headed their way once he completed his observations. "We should leave," he said as he came to a stop beside Deidara. "It's rare that bounty hunters work together, but even so, it would be wise to stay alert in case it was a larger group that actually split into two or three. If that's the case, the others should be near and would pursue us as well."

"Not with the display of art I've created for them, yeah," Deidara replied as he walked towards the woman that had Ryoko's sword sticking out of her chest. He pulled it with out with a sickening squelch and rubbed the blade clean of blood stains against the woman's clothing. "I believe this is yours, yeah," he said to Ryoko as he handed her the sword.

Sasori let out a frustrated grunt. "That is _not_ art, brat."

"Why do you always have to look down on my art, Sasori-danna?"

Ryoko listened to their argument as she slid her blade back into the hollow length in her staff. She wrapped her whip expertly and hung it back on its place on her hip. She made sure everything was set and ready before she tried sneaking off while they argued.

"Tch. Whatever, yeah. Hey, where are you going?"

Ryoko stopped in her tracks and turned to face them. "Well, if the situation is as Sasori had said, I do not want to stick around," she explained hoping they bought her excuse. It was partially true anyway.

Sasori walked (if you could call it walking) towards Ryoko, causing her to tense, but relaxed once he kept on moving past her. Deidara followed and paused when he noticed Ryoko was still standing where she was.

"You going to stay there and wait until they come and get you or what, yeah?" He asked somewhat sarcastically.

A look of surprise flickered over Ryoko's features a she answered him. "Er, I… no." She strode forward and caught up with them as her staff guided her over rocks and sticks.

With that, the trio headed off into the night.

* * *

Thank you for reading! I would appreciate it even more if you reviewed! The next chapter will have Ryoko and the artists meet up with Itachi and Kisame, though I'm not sure how... I'll think of something. : 'Till next time!


	4. Chapter 3

Thank you guys for the support and reviews, I really appreciate it. Well, here's the next chapter for you to read while I go start packing up... enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of these characters except for Ryoko.

* * *

Ryoko sat up abruptly, startled by the sound of people talking. When did they get here? These people must have been really skilled to not have woken her up by the sound of their footsteps, but then again, she wasn't a light sleeper either. Sleep still fogging her senses, she stretched in her sitting position by the base of a tree and yawned.

"About time, yeah," Deidara said lazily as if he too had woken up not too long ago.

Ryoko sniffed the air and noticed that Itachi and Kisame were the ones who had startled her awake. She ran a hand through her red wavy-ish curls, which had grown dull since she had left Konoha. "Good morning," she greeted in strangely calm voice.

"So we meet again, eh, Ryoko?" Kisame finally spoke.

Itachi simply spared a glance at the girl before turning back to his breakfast. "Hn."

Ryoko smiled and went over to sit with the group. Deidara and Sasori sat opposite of Itachi and Kisame with only the charred remains of last night's campfire separating them as they ate.

"I'm hungry," Ryoko said, knowing full well that Itachi and Kisame had come prepared with onigiri. She could scent it after all.

Kisame grinned and took an onigiri out of the box he and Itachi had stopped to buy at nearby village earlier that morning. They hadn't known they would run into the artists as well as Ryoko (which surprised them), but they still bought enough for everyone, seeing as they had planned to have origini all day. That obviously wouldn't be happening anymore. "Hold out your hand."

Ryoko's lips quirked upward as she held out her hand and felt the familiar touch of onigiri. She didn't think she'd be so happy to eat onigiri again after a long time. She thanked Kisame for her food before scarfing it down hungrily.

Sasori let out an impatient breath and tried to get the group back on the conversation they were having before Ryoko had woken up and interrupted them. "So what news did Zetsu have?"

"He…" Kisame trailed off, glancing at Ryoko as he did so.

Deidara and Sasori followed Kisame's gaze in understanding. Whatever news he had, Ryoko wasn't allowed to hear. Sasori looked back at Deidara with a knowing look that said 'you know what to do'. Deidara frowned. He did not want to miss whatever it was Kisame and Itachi had to say, but stood up anyway.

"Hey, Ryoko," the blonde said unenthusiastically. "Let's go for a walk."

Ryoko, having finished the last bit of her onigiri, turned to face the iwa-nin. Deidara shifted uncomfortably as though she could actually see him. "Uhm… okay," she answered him, her sightless red eyes narrowing slightly.

Ryoko wasn't dumb. She knew they didn't want her to hear whatever it is they were talking about, but what could she do? She stood up and followed Deidara out of hearing range of the rest of the group and towards the sound of a rushing river, forgetting to take her staff with her.

Red eyes fixed on nothing in front of her, Ryoko's black shinobi sandals patted the grassy forest floor as she walked, deep in thought.

So, her assumptions of Itachi and Kisame three days ago had been right; they were Akatsuki. And although she didn't feel quite as scared as she should have, she still felt the need to be cautious around them and the artists. Her memories of last night's fight returned to her and she wondered what Sasori and Deidara could want with her to keep her alive. Maybe they simply didn't want to waste their energy fighting the Hokage's former apprentice. She would be a formidable opponent despite her blindness.

Ryoko was snapped out of her thoughts as she tripped over a large rock and caught herself roughly by her hands and knees. "Dammit," she cursed. How she hated being blind… and stupid enough to leave her staff behind.

Deidara looked behind him and moved to Ryoko's side, crouching down as he did so. "Are you okay, yeah?"

"No," she answered him curtly. She sat up with her legs bent beneath her so that her butt rested on her heels. "I hate being blind."

The blonde cast her a look of pity before mimicking her position. "How'd you get like that? Blind, I mean."

Ryoko sighed as she listened to the river a few ways away from them. Deidara was smart if his idea had been to drown out Itachi, Kisame, and Sasori's voices with the sound rushing water. Her brow furrowed slightly before she answered him. "I wasn't born blind if that's what you're asking."

"Obviously not," Deidara replied a bit impatiently from not having received a straight answer. "You wouldn't be as skilled as you are now if you were, yeah."

"Mmm…" Ryoko agreed. She didn't like talking about her blindness, but she got the feeling Deidara would keep pushing her until he got the answer he wanted. "I always wore glasses as a child, so my vision wasn't perfect. I was told at fourteen that my vision was failing and would continue to do so until I was blind. So… I did as much as I could before I turned blind a bit after I turned seventeen."

Deidara stared at the ground, turning Ryoko's words over in his head. "So, then… why can you just get an operation or a transplant or something?"

"Besides the fact that it's expensive, I have to wait until I'm eighteen."

"Why?"

Ryoko paused, choosing her next words carefully so that she wouldn't use any technical or medical terms he might not understand. "Because… I'm still young, meaning that my eyes are still developing. So if I were to get surgery now, my eyes would still be 'growing'. In the end, my eyesight would go from good to not so good again and I would have to get surgery again, which would now have the chance of not curing my eyesight at all. Its better to wait it out so that I can just get my eyesight back once and for all, and even better than when I had glasses too."

Deidara grinned slightly at her excitement and happiness as she finished her explanation. She obviously could not wait to get surgery. "So you're going to get surgery as soon as you're eighteen, yeah?"

"Well," Ryoko began, all excitement from her voice fading. "its like I said, this surgery costs a lot and I'm not exactly wealthy, now am I?" She laughed softly, a bit of sadness evident in her words. "It would probably take place long after my birthday at this rate."

Deidara nodded in understanding as he got up and stretched. "Its not an easy life for a missing nin, but I must say, being an Akatsuki isn't all that bad."

"No?" Ryoko said, standing as well.

Deidara did not answer as he started to make his way back to the others, this time staying close to Ryoko as she followed in case she tripped again.

* * *

Sasori waited until Deidara and Ryoko were well out of hearing range before speaking once again. "Well?" he asked impatiently.

Kisame smirked at Sasori's obvious impatience as he answered. "As we were saying before, we met up with Zetsu and Tobi. Or rather, they found us. Zetsu had news about Hashiki, Ryoko and explained her status as a missing nin as well as her former position as the Hokage's apprentice."

"Hm… yes, that much I've already figured out and comfirmed."

"How?" Kisame asked, not letting the smallest bit of surprise show.

Sasori's eyes, or rather his puppet's, narrowed slightly as the memories from last night returned. "We ran into a group of bounty hunters last night after we ran into Hashiki. They openly stated that we were Akatsuki and Ryoko was a missing nin. Then she killed two of them as we handled the rest."

Kisame sat in silence, assessing the information he just now received. So Ryoko now knew they were Akatsuki… and despite her condition, she proved that she was indeed the Hashiki, Ryoko Zetsu had given him information about. The blue-skinned man glance at his partner and sighed inaudibly when he saw that he had not been affected by any of this at all. In fact, it seemed as if the sharingan user wasn't even listening.

When Itachi noticed that Kisame wasn't going to get straight to the point anytime soon, he simply laid it out as it was for the impatient red-head. "Zetsu gave us a direct order from Pein to bring Ryoko back to the main base alive."

Sasori gave a small nod. "I see."

"I guess having a medic whose chakra can heal and destroy would be of much use to Akatsuki. If Leader plans to make her join that is," Kisame said, his grin animalistic.

At this point none of them knew what Akasuki's leader would do with Ryoko, but it was clear that he would either force her into giving them information on Konoha and then killing her or 

make her a member. But wait, a disabled Akatsuki member? Did Leader know that Ryoko was blind?

The trio was snapped out of their thoughts as they sensed Deidara and Ryoko returning from their 'walk'.

"What happened to you?" Kisame asked Ryoko upon noticing the dirt on her palms and cargo pants.

A light pink tinted Ryoko's cheeks as she thought back to her clumsiness. "I tripped," she admitted, swallowing her pride.

Kisame grinned, finding her embarrassment amusing.

"Gather your things," Sasori said in his deep intimidating voice. "We're leaving." When he noticed that Ryoko simply stood, unsure if this meant her as well, Sasori added roughly, "you too."

Itachi stood up and began walking in the direction where their destination lay, ready to leave. Kisame followed suit, strapping his large sword safely to his back as he did.

When Sasori grew impatient, he too started in the direction where Itachi and Kisame had head off into without glancing back to see if Deidara and Ryoko followed.

Having gathered all her things and placed them in their usual place, Ryoko fastened her cloak's golden chain around her neck before picking up her staff. She sniffed the air lightly, noticing that Itachi, Kisame and Sasori were already a few ways off. Deidara was still with her.

"Let's go, yeah," Deidara said, starting forward and trusting Ryoko to follow. He quickened his pace to catch up with the others as Ryoko jogged just enough to reach his side and then slowed to his speed.

"About time," Sasori growled as they caught up. His puppet dragged over the forest floor like a slug. He fixed Deidara with a stern glare when he noticed the blonde stuff his hand in his clay pouch to begin molding a small bird for transportation, most likely for himself and the disabled Ryoko. "Not this time, brat."

Deidara frowned. "Why not?"

Sasori glanced at Ryoko then back at him. "I'm _testing_ you to see how far you can go without making one of your stupid creations," he answered with an underlying message. He didn't say it as rudely as he usually would have, though still insulted Deidara's idea of art.

Deidara opened his mouth then close it again when he noticed the way Sasori had glanced at Ryoko in indication and emphasized the word 'test'. As soon as he figured out that Sasori wanted to test Ryoko on something, the blonde's offended frown disappeared and was instead replaced with a look of confusion. Why would Akatsuki's scorpion want to do that?

Kisame looked back after hearing the Artists' exchange of words. Upon noticing Deidara's puzzlement, he realized that Deidara did not yet know what was going on. _He will soon,_ he 

thought to himself as he too began to wonder about what the end of their journey would have in store for Ryoko. And for Akatsuki.

Ryoko walked on uncomfortably, her staff tapping and sliding across the ground in front of her lightly. She sensed that something had passed between Sasori and Deidara, but could not read the puppet master's emotions. She could only sense some confusion infused with the blonde's chakra. "Where are we going?" she finally asked after a while.

"To the outskirts of Amegakure to see Leader," Itachi's monotonous voice answered her. Sensing Ryoko's immediate slow of pace and awareness, he then added, "If you try to resist, you will be forced."

Deidara cast Ryoko a look of pity as she returned to her normal speed and swallowed nervously.

"Why?" She asked bravely, barely noticing that Sasori was beginning to pick up his pace.

This time it was Kisame who answered her. "You'll find out soon enough." He grinned, bearing his sharp teeth.

Soon enough, Itachi broke to a run, knowing that Sasori wanted to test Ryoko's capabilities as much as he did. He just didn't trust Leader's decision on bringing her in, much like the time he was told to recruit Deidara.

"This is more my style, yeah," Deidara said, smirking as he too eased into a run. "Keep up, Ryoko!"

Ryoko brought her staff to her side as she too sped up. She closed her eyes, concentrating on Deidara's quick footsteps. A sharp scent of wood warned her that a tree was ahead and she quickly swerved to the left, still hot on the blonde's heels. A pause and then a harder landing in his rhythmitic running told her that he had jumped over something. She pinpointed the area of his jump and leaped at her estimated time with her dark green cloak billowing behind her.

"Impressive, yeah," Deidara said, looking back in time to see her land over a fallen tree. She had made her jump a bit too high and lengthy, but it was better to do that than to make it fall short.

Ryoko smirked slightly, letting a bit of her cockiness show. "You can't lose me so easily, Deidara-san."

"You can just call me Deidara." The blonde looked around for Sasori and smirked when he noticed he was not among them. Were they too fast for him? He looked back again to see the puppet behind him and Ryoko, but still off to the side. Running wasn't his style, but he could run if wanted, just not as fast as he could without being in his puppet.

Ryoko too could run faster, but did not for two reasons. One of them was of course her state of blindness and the other being that she had to slow down enough to be behind someone in order to listen carefully to the sound of their footsteps as they ran so that she could avoid obstacles. It was, of course, also much easier to travel on ground than it was among the trees, seeing as she had to keep jumping from branch to branch.

Scenting that Kisame and Itachi were a bit farther up ahead she picked up her pace slightly in order to catch up. When she stumbled over a rather large branch, however, she forced herself to stay behind Deidara at the speed he was going.

Soon, the forest thinned, allowing what little sunlight that filtered through the clouds wash over them. The grass grew taller as the landscape slowly transformed into a large field with a warm breeze rippling thought the long stalks of wild grass.

From bird's eye view, Itachi was in the lead with Kisame a little ways off to the side. Deidara came soon after with Ryoko tailing him and Sasori about ten feet to her right. Their black and red cloaks (save for Ryoko's) billowed with the wind as they rushed passed, none of them slowing down.

The sun began to set when Itachi finally stopped. As the rest of the group caught up to the quick raven-hair shinobi, a cool breeze blew towards them, promising rain.

"It's going to rain and it will be dark soon," Itachi stated. He glanced at Ryoko, his expression emotionless and his sharingan whirling in crimson orbs.

"Do you want to rest, kid?" Kisame asked Ryoko, voicing Itachi's silent question.

Sasori's eyes fixed on Ryoko as she answered, evaluating her state and performance. That was the reason why the puppet master stayed behind during their rather long run.

"No," Ryoko breathed out, feeling worn, yet struggling to show none. "Are we almost there?"

Blue eyes flickered towards her, admiring her slight determination. "If we were to keep going, we'd be there by midnight, but we would be traveling in crappy weather," Deidara observed openly.

"Even if we were to camp out, we would have no shelter in the open field," Kisame added as he grabbed the hilt of Samehada which was still safely strapped to his back.

"Let's just go already," Sasori muttered impatiently as he started forward. "We're wasting time."

Itachi followed silently with Kisame beside him and Deidara and Ryoko tailing behind, their feet sinking into the soggy ground. Although they walked quickly, Ryoko was thankful they hadn't broken out into a run again.

* * *

That's it! For now. I'm sorry that this turned to be a crappy chapter. : I'll try harder next time. I'll be busy planning for the next few days, so it will probably be a while before I update again. I don't think it will be more than three or four days, though. 'Till next time! Oh, and please take the time to review so that I know my readers do exist. :D


	5. Chapter 4

I tried to make this chapter a little better than the last, so hopefully its worth your time. I'm a little stressed out about a few things, like how I found out that one of my closest friends has cancer... and then there's a lot I have to do before I move to my dorm. Anyway, enjoy! And take care, I don't want anyone else getting cancer.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other character except for Ryoko.

* * *

"We're here, yeah."

It was a little past midnight as Ryoko slid off the wing of Deidara's clay bird, still shaking from nervousness. After they had set off again in Amegakure territory, Deidara had created three clay birds for transportation so that they would arrive at the main base at his estimated time. The blonde rode alone whilst Sasori and Ryoko shared a ride and Itachi and Kisame shared another.

Being blind while riding on a giant bird for Ryoko's first time was a little more frightening than it would have been if she wasn't. Sasori was seated in front of the kunoichi as she occasionally grasped whatever part of him she could whenever the bird made a sudden move or lurched. Despite her nerves, Ryoko had noticed that Sasori didn't exactly feel human under his Akatsuki cloak. He felt a little too hard and lacked bodily warmth as they flew through the heavily clouded skies with the rain pouring down on them.

At first Sasori had stiffened at the unfamiliar contact, and shook her off the first few times. After a while, though, he got used to it since Ryoko kept unconsciously holding on to him anyway.

Ryoko forced herself to stop shaking, but realized she couldn't, because it was mostly due to the chilly air around them. She noticed it had stopped raining as she took several strides forward to who knows where, though her red hair was still dripping wet.

"What part of Amegakure are we in?" she asked through chattering teeth.

Kisame watched as Deidara manipulated his birds to fly high up in the still clouded sky and blew them up before he turned to Ryoko, who seemed startled at the far away explosion. "We are in a very secure area near the border of Bird Country." He grinned, bearing his shark-like teeth before adding, "On the small mountains of Amegakure."

Ryoko's red eyes widened slightly in surprise. "_On_ the mountains?" It was no wonder why it was a bit too cold for an early summer night.

Deidara responded as the group continued forward on the soggy green field. "Like Kisame mentioned, they are small, and are the only mountains in Amegakure. No one bothers passing over them, which is what makes this place ideal for our main base."

Sasori ignored their conversation and instead took interest in observing the night world around them. They were located in a large crater surrounded by mountains that was created when a comet crashed down from the skies long ago. For him, it was nature's way of creating eternal art, an idea he worshipped since the death of his parents as a child.

He looked to the small river on his far right in admiration, though he did not show it. It came from the tallest peak of the mountains and ran down through the well maintained grass until it came to the edge of the circular field, where it crashed down as a waterfall through an opening of the crater. The opening was the only place where the mountains parted slightly and allowed for the Akatsuki members to gaze down on the earth without having to climb the giant hills.

From Deidara's clay bird, Sasori had noticed that the river split the circular green field, not in a straight line of water, but an 's', making the field resemble a yin yang sign. Yes, it was truly a mark of nature's eternal beauty.

"Um…" Ryoko hesitated, making Sasori snap out of his admiring thoughts. "So we're here right?" She felt like an impatient child for asking so many questions.

Itachi's onyx eyes stared straight ahead at the small castle in front of him the Akatsuki referred to as 'the main base' as he answered her question. "Yes."

Having tucked her short staff under her arm, Ryoko nearly tripped as the group climbed the stone stairs that led to the huge wooden doors of the castle. She regained her balance and started forward again more carefully, unaware of Deidara's amused blue eyes on her. It was mean to find Ryoko's handicapped situation humorous, but then again, he was Akatsuki. Who cares?

They came to a halt at the top of the steps as the wooden doors loomed over them. Itachi, being at the front of the group, made a few hand seals and the doors swung open silently. They made their way inside quickly before the doors closed slowly behind them.

"Well, here we are, yeah," Deidara announced, spreading his arms in presentation. "I know you can't tell, but we're in the lobby right now-" The blonde was sharply cut off as Kisame elbowed him. The tall blue man fixed his yellow eyes sternly on Deidara, making him realize the way he'd rudely pointed Ryoko's disability.

"Its okay," Ryoko said quietly with a small smile. She was about to ask whatthey wanted her to do next, but stiffened when she heard light footsteps echo around the elegant room as someone new walked across the nicely polished cherry wood floors towards them. _A woman,_ Ryoko observed, taking in the scent of the newcomer.

Ryoko tensed slightly as the woman came to a halt a few feet in front of her and spoke. "Good, you are here." Was she speaking to her? "We weren't expecting the arrival of all of you at the same time. Did you finish your mission early, Itachi?"

Ryoko relaxed as the woman's soothingly calm voice reached her pierced ears. This woman sounded like she posed no threat, and probably looked nice too. However, Ryoko wasn't completely fooled. Underneath all those layers of elegant beauty she could not see, the woman held a powerful chakara within her. The red-head smirked slightly. _As expected of Akatsuki._

"Yes," Itachi's monotonous voice shook Ryoko out of her thoughts as his now crimson orbs pierced into the woman's indigo ones. "And we've accomplished the side mission Leader requested, as you can see."

The woman's matching indigo hair moved slightly as she nodded once. She turned to Sasori and Deidara as Itachi and Kisame headed up a large stair case and to their own rooms for the night.

Ryoko shifted uncomfortably as she felt the woman's eyes land on her for a few seconds before looking back to the artists and speaking. "Before you two rest for the night, there's a meeting tomorrow at ten in the morning, so be ready."

"Good night, Ryoko, yeah," Deidara managed out through a yawn as he followed Sasori up a stairway opposite the one Itachi and Kisame had descended into. They both lead to the same floor and were located in the lobby, but it didn't matter, because it just looked better that way.

"Good night," Ryoko called back before turning her attention back to the indigo haired woman. She waited patiently as the woman watched the last of Deidara's blonde hair disappear in the mildly lit hallway above them.

"My name is Konan," she started, taking in Ryoko's worn out and soaked appearance. "It is nice to finally meet you, Ryoko."

Ryoko kept her cautious emotions beneath the surface as she breathed in Konan's papery and flowery scent. So, she knew who she was and had been expecting her. But what did Akatsuki want with her? The unanswered question still lingered in the back of her tired mind as she greeted Konan. "It is nice to meet you too."

Konan let a small smile grace her elegantly beautiful features as she gave a nod of approval at Ryoko's manners. She wasn't exactly sure what kind of person Ryoko might have turned out to be and it would have been bothersome if it was someone rude and unintelligible.

"I know you are tired and worn from the journey, and no doubt Sasori or Itachi, perhaps even both, made it tough for you. I will take you to our guest room where you will stay for the night," the indigo-haired woman stated, looking into Ryoko's sightless eyes. Before Ryoko could protest, she quickly added, "I know you have many questions, but I promise you that they will be answered tomorrow after you meet Pein."

Ryoko shifted her weight on one leg, feeling her patience starting to wear thin. "Pein?" she asked curiously.

"Leader. Only I really refer to him as Pein."

"Oh."

"I'll take you to your room now," Konan said, taking Ryoko's hand.

Ryoko stiffened at the contact as she was pulled away by Konan. The redhead tugged her hand away gently, not wanting to offend Konan. Who knows what this woman could do to her if she got offended?

"… I can walk myself, thank you," Ryoko told her quietly yet firmly, unsure of Konan's reaction.

Konan simply nodded and lead Ryoko away from the stairs and the lobby and instead went through a hallway in the left side of the small castle. She stopped at a large cherry wood door and turned the knob, exposing small dark room.

"Because it is meant for guests, this room is smaller than the rest, but it still includes a small bathroom." Konan held the door open for Ryoko as the readhead stepped foot inside and sneezed at the dusty filled air. "I apologize for the untidiness; we don't house guests often."

"I can tell," Ryoko replied with a tone of humor.

Konan smiled. "There is a bathrobe and a kimono hanging in the bathroom if you want to clean up. Someone will come get you in the morning for breakfast and then you'll be able to meet Pein," she explained briefly. "Call me if you need anything."

Ryoko nodded. "Thank you."

With that, Konan closed the door and Ryoko to sunk onto the bed. She coughed as dust descended into the air and stood up abruptly to get away from the dusty old bed.

"Geez! Do they ever clean in here?" she mumbled to herself as she walked around the small room, looking for the bathroom. Instead of sitting and thinking as she had planned to do, the redhead settled for changing out of her muddy clothes and taking a quick shower.

When she was finished, Ryoko bravely stepped out of the bathroom in a short white bathrobe to face the dusty room again. After she placed her dirty clothes and gear at the foot of the bed, she yanked the comforter off the mattress and shook it, making dust fly everywhere. Coughing, she did the same with the pillow and placed it with the dustless side up back on the full sized bed when she felt she'd gotten most of the dust off.

Without bothering to use the comforter or any other layer for warmth, Ryoko finally let herself lay on the bed and sighed.

"Smells like an old attic in here," she complained to no one. Her sightless eyes closed as she realized she probably did everything she did in the past hour in darkness. "I've _been_ in darkness," she muttered bitterly to herself before her mind finally drifted off to dream world.

* * *

One thing Ryoko liked about having dreams was that she could _see_. She awoke with a smile and stretched as she lay in bed still in her white bathrobe, her sense blurred by sleep. Suddenly she became aware of a presence in the dusty room. She sat up abruptly and pin-pointed the newcomer's scent, but before she could do anything it spoke.

"Good morning!" a male voice said rather loudly. The cheeriness radiating off of him and his loudness made Ryoko flinch. "I'm Tobi!"

Ryoko would have stared at him, but settled for letting her sightless gaze rest straight ahead as Tobi shifted somewhere on the mattress.

"Um… I'm Ryoko," she began a bit cautiously. "Though I can't say it's a pleasure to meet you."

Tobi's swirly orange tilted along with his head as he replied, seemingly hurt by her words. "Why not?"

Ryoko would have thought the gesture was cute if she could see him and if he had not startled her.

Ryoko narrowed her eyes in annoyance. "Because you entered the room without knocking, startled me, and you're loud."

"But Tobi thinks you're nice."

Taken by surprise, the redhead tugged the hem of her bathrobe unconsciously.

"Thanks… I guess," she replied, unsure.

Tobi grinned under his mask as he grasped Ryoko's hand and pulled her up with unexpected strength. "To breakfast!" he announced as he began pulling her away.

Ryoko pulled back, alarmed. "What? No! I'm not even properly dressed!" She twisted her wrist and broke free from his grasp. "Just give me five minutes, okay?"

"Okay!" Tobi cheered as he stepped out of the guest room and closed the door.

Five minutes later, Ryoko stepped out of the room and into the hall dressed in a fire red kimono that she found hanging in the bathroom. It was a little too big, but it hung comfortably loose on her womanly figure.

"Ohhh… you look so pretty!" Tobi said, taking in her appearance.

Ryoko had a feeling he said probably said that to anyone, but still blushed at his compliment. "Thank you, Tobi," she said hesitantly, holding her short staff to the polished cherry wood floor. "Lead the way."

At this, Tobi took her hand and pulled her along behind him as he basically broke into a run to the dining room.

"This isn't a race!" Ryoko said in slight panic. She raised her staff and hit Tobi on who-cares-where a couple times in attempt to slow the energetic boy down. Maybe he wasn't a boy, but he sure acted like one.

A few moments later the duo arrived at the beautifully decorated dining room. Located in the center of the room was a long mahogany table with matching chairs on every side. A huge lengthy window allowed sunlight to burst in from the outside world with its rich red curtains drawn the sides.

Scenting Sasori and Itachi at the table with cereal (except for Sasori, who was reading a book), Ryoko broke free from Tobi and smiled. "Good morning," she greeted, happy to find someone she knew. Well, not really.

"Hn," Itachi grunted in greeting as he took another spoonful of cereal in his mouth.

Sasori simply settled for glaring at Tobi and Ryoko for their loud entrance. "You disturbed the peace," he stated, annoyed.

"Sorry, Sasori-sempai!" Tobi apologized as he waltzed into the large white kitchen, leaving Ryoko to converse with the two ex-nin.

The redhead stood in the same spot where she broke free from Tobi with a puzzled look on her face. Why did Sasori sound different? His voice was not so menacing anymore and he sounded younger.

"Um… Sasori?"

"What?"

"Why… do you sound… different…?" she trailed off, unsure.

Sasori sighed. He knew he would have to explain this to Ryoko sometime if she stayed any longer than a day. "I sound different, because I was inside one of my heavily guarded puppets yesterday. His name is Hiroku."

"A puppet…?" Ryoko thought back to the time when she had first met Sasori and heard him say something about creating puppets out of the bounty hunters that had attacked them. _So, he's a puppeteer, _Ryoko thought silently to herself. _That's why he smelled of wood and leathery corpse… corpse?!_ "You make puppets out of… humans?"

"Yes," Sasori replied, as he turned back to the book he was reading.

Ryoko swallowed, but other than that, managed to control her uneasiness to not show. She let out a small "oh" as Itachi, who had finished his cereal, looked at her with a small glint of amusement in his eyes. She was about to follow Tobi into the Kitchen when something else dawned on her. Why did Sasori still smell of wood and leathery human flesh?

Before Ryoko could ask, Sasori closed his book and stood up.

"Its about time for the meeting," he directed at Itachi as he walked out of the dining room. Tobi could be excluded for all he cared.

Itachi gave no reply as he too stood and headed into the kitchen with his empty cereal bowl.

Tobi came out of the kitchen, balancing two bowls of plain cereal in either hand and walked towards the long table. "Sit over here, Ryoko-chan," he called as he set down the bowls of cereal and plopped down in front of one.

Ryoko did as she was told, her mind still lingering on her disturbing thoughts as she carefully sat in the chair next to Tobi.

"Aren't you going to the meeting?" she asked, taking a spoonful of tasteless cereal in her mouth. Didn't Akatsuki have any taste? The stuff wasn't even worth eating in Ryoko's opinion.

"Nope," Tobi replied as he slipped his orange mask over his mouth so that he could eat. "I already know what it is about anyway."

"Really?" Ryoko asked a bit disinterested. Was Tobi a member of Akatsuki? He didn't exactly act like one and he was missing a seemingly important meeting. Maybe he was just keeping an eye on Ryoko.

"Yeah," Tobi said casually, eating his cereal. "Its about you."

_Now_ Ryoko was interested.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this one! I'll try to squeeze in another chapter before Friday, which is when I have to leave. Please take the time to review since I took the time to write you this fic.

Oh! And I don't exactly have a plot... ; But I'm thinking of making this a romance fic if nothing comes to mind. So! Please let me know who you think Ryoko would be good with. Pein and Konan are together, so neither of those two. xD I will take your opinion into consideration and I'll linger on it even more if you state a reason along with the Akatsuki of your choice. Yes, Hidan and Kakuzu will be in here... next chapter, in fact.

Review!


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